A playoff challenge: Yreka High VB squad faces West Valley on the road tonight

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Siskiyou Daily News, Yreka, CA

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Posted Nov. 19, 2013 at 10:02 AM

Posted Nov. 19, 2013 at 10:02 AM

YREKA

On paper, the Yreka High School volleyball squad are the underdogs heading into tonight's Northern Section Division 4 second round playoff match against No. 1 seed West Valley on the road.
But these Lady Miners are not your typical No. 8 seed.
The past two seasons, Yreka has made it to the D4 sections finals. Two years ago they shocked the Eagles in a semifinal match to earn its first win against West Valley in 15 years. The two teams met for the section title in 2012, with the Eagles coming away with the victory.
This season, while West Valley won all three meetings, all the games were competitive, with the Lady Miners taking the Eagles to the maximum amount of sets in two of the contests.
While it will certainly be a challenge against a very good team playing in front of its home fans, Yreka head coach Scott Eastman believes the Miners match up well with West Valley.
“We were very competitive with them all three times we met,” he said. “I expect it to be a barn burner tonight.”
The key difference between the two teams this year is the Eagles have been more consistent in playing at a high level, while Yreka has struggled more with consistency at times this year, Eastman said.
Yreka hosted a first round playoff game last Tuesday against No. 9 Colusa.
The Lady Miners dominated from the start, keeping Colusa under 10 points in two sets as they won with ease in three sets.
The Eagles had a first round bye.
Yreka is 22-16 overall while West Valley comes in at 30-10. The contest begins at 7 p.m. at West Valley High in Cottonwood, Calif.
Eastman said that the Miners and the Eagles are very familiar with each other and does not expect there to be any surprises in regards to what each teams strengths and weaknesses are. Bottom line, Eastman said, is the game should come down to execution and which team can run it's game plan the best.
If the Lady Miners do not play well tonight the game could be over quickly, but if they do play well, it should be a battle to the end, he said,
“It will come down, I think, to who has a better night,” Eastman said. “We know we can compete against them. If we play well we have a shot.”
The team knows what it has to do tonight and will just go down to Cottonwood, have fun, play their game and see what happens, Eastman said.
Before the playoffs began, Eastman said that he believed that this was one of the deepest D4 playoff brackets he had seen in some time and felt almost any team could move on to the section title game.
Already, there have been two upsets in the D4 playoffs which proves that a number of teams could win the section title in these 2013 playoffs.
On Thursday night in second round action, No. 4 seed Lassen, the Northern Athletic League champions, were upset at home by No. 5 seed Gridley in five sets. Gridley will face the winner of the Yreka vs. West Valley game in the semifinals on Thursday night. Yreka defeated Gridley in two sets in their lone meeting this year on Sept. 20 at a tournament in Red Bluff. No. 3 seed Sutter was upset on Thursday by No. 6 seed Wheatland in five sets. Wheatland faces No. 2 seed Willows tonight.